OK I am about to go on a political rant and my apologies in advance if I offend anyone. I wish nothing more but having ALL our children receive a world class education. Being a parent with a child in the NYC public school system has been an eye opening experience. I have spent the last two years helping an amazing group of parents and staff members throw carnivals, auctions, bake sales, craft fairs, and movies for the sole purpose of being able to provide our children with exposure to arts, music, and having opportunities for play during the day. I hope that one day schools will be properly funded and that bake sales fund truly extraneous experiences. It is with this frustration that I am almost speechless to hear that Albany has proposed a budget providing universal pre-K funding for the state but within the same proposal is handing charter schools an additional $1000 per pupil, making it impossible to move a charter school without their consent, mandating that these schools get placement in public buildings and mandating that the DOE pay for private space should there be lack of space in a public building. Charter schools only educate 3% of the states children and are heavily funded by foundations and wealthy donors. As I watched the media blitz attacking DeBlazio for taking schools away from children I am awe struck by the professional quality of the commercial (a la election year ads). What about the fact that during rallies parents of charter schools show up with matching t-shirts? Any PTO parent can tell you that printing shirts costs a pretty penny. What about the ads I see on the side of school buses all throughout the city. Or the professionally made flyers I receive in the mail urging me to enroll my daughter. If you have money to lobby and market why dont you have money to pay rent? Why should tax payers pay additional funding per pupil? Recently it was found that charter schools cannot be audited by the state comptroller since these schools are private entities. If my tax dollars are going to pay for something I darn well want to know what its paying for. I want my tax dollars to pay for providing an education to all students not just those that have active and involved parents that highly value education. How will this process ever close the socioeconomic gap we see? I also want to point out that charters were never created for the purpose of school choice as the rhetoric goes. Charters were initially created, at least in NY, for the purpose of being test beds for innovation in education. Their purpose was to find what works and turnkey it to the public schools. None of this has occurred. All this being said, if you are a resident of New York State I urge you to contact your local assembly member and have your voice heard. People matter more than money. And as for Andrew Cuomo, I will not be voting for him again this election cycle.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 13:24:39 +0000
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